IDF Soldier's Testimony Backs Ex-DIA Director Gen. Mike Flynn's Contention That October 7 Attack Was an "Inside" Job
Above image: Israeli Defense Forces Golani Brigade Sgt. Shalom Sheetrit
An Israeli Defense Forces soldier has stepped forward and testified to the Knesset - the equivalent of the US Congress in Israel - that his unit in the elite Golani Brigade received a "strange" order from the deputy battalion commander to cancel a patrol on October 7th, at the exact time and place that Hamas breached the fence and attacked his outpost, the Pega outpost, and entered Israel. The testimony included an audiotape of the direct order.
The soldier, Sgt. Shalom Sheetrit, lost a leg and many comrades in the fighting that day, and has called for answers from the Israeli government. Had Israeli patrols encountered Hamas sooner, massive firepower might have been brought to bear sooner and foiled the attack.
So far reported only on Israeli News 7 in the international mainstream media, the story has now been picked up by popular online media The Young Turks (TYT) and comedian-commentator Jimmy Dore. Alternative news media The Cradle has also picked up the story, the implications of which are far-reaching.
Below: The Young Turks, Ana Kasparian, "IDF Soldier Suggests Israel LET OCTOBER 7 Happen"
The testimony supports what former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and a staunch supporter of Israel if not its government, Gen. Michael Flynn, has long been saying in strongest terms: That he believes that parts of the Israeli Army were ordered by higher-ups to "stand-down," i.e. refrain from engagement with the enemy, at key places and times on October 7. Also key elements of the defenses suddenly broke down.
It is well established that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has long advocated the funding of Hamas by Israel through Qatar for "humanitarian" purposes. See: New York Times, December 2023, "'Buying Quiet’: Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas"
On July 17, 2025 Israeli News 7 reported that Sgt. Shalom Sheetrit told the Israeli Knesset:
“We were playing on the phone [at 5:20 a.m.] and suddenly a strange message comes from my battalion commander…And what he says on the call is something like this: ‘I don’t know why, but an order was issued that there are no patrols at the fence until nine in the morning…."
Sheetrit said:
"And Tomer gives us this look like,. What? You know, we’re simple soldiers, just combatants. we’re infantry, not commanders or officers who can ask questions, right? It’s an order from the deputy battalion commander. we take the order and and don’t ask questions …and sure enough exactly an hour later suddenly sirens…."
Below: Shalom Sheetrit: IDF Soldier Testifies to Knesset That His Unit Was Given “Strange” Order on 10/7 to cancel critical fence patrol. Includes audiotape of direct order.
In 2023, soon after the 10/7 attack, Gen. Flynn said in an interview:
"There was a decision made to have a security stand-down on the 7th of October for 7 hours on the southern zone....up against the fence line against the Gaza strip, and I'm telling you folks, that wasn't done by happenstance and that's not a coincidence. Somebody made that decision, don't know if Netanyahu made it, or the Southern Zone commander who made it, but somebody made it..."
In another interview this month, Gen. Flynn reiterated his position, forcefully ruling out mere incompetence or "mistakes," and calling the Hamas 10/7 attack an "inside thing," which is a term for an attack enabled by or organized by the government itself, or by a faction within that government, in order to further a political or geopolitical agenda.
"I've already heard from some of the [IDF] soldiers who were told to stand-down at the exact hours, so something bad happened and it was an inside thing....Something broke down and it wasn't because of mistakes."
Below: Gen. Michael Flynn, "It wasn't because of mistakes."
Most Secure, Deadliest Border in the World
The tiny 39-mile border between Gaza and Israel (compared to the 2,000 Mile US - Mexico border) is probably the most heavily surveillanced, heavily defended border in the world. Flynn takes pains to emphasize that he has personally walked the border and examined the defenses, and says it is one of the, if not the most, secure borders.
The World Tribune reported in 2005 as Israel launched a $220 million "advanced security system" along the border:
"...watchtowers would be armed with remote-control machine guns directed by the C2 center to fire at infiltrators. The area would come under air surveillance from unmanned aerial vehicles. Below, U.S.-origin Humvees, equipped with radar and linked to the C2 center, would patrol areas of the fence.
The World Tribune reports that there are motion sensors underneath the 70 to 150 meter -wide "buffer zone" along the length of the wall, and machine guns mounted on unmanned, roving vehicles. It is hard to imagine how one Hamas got close to the border,never mind hundreds of them, fully armed and with trucks and hang-gliders. How was a squadron of hang-gliders taking off on the Gaza side not noticed by the painstaking 24/7 watchers watching every inch of land for miles, on a border that never sleeps?
Apache helicopter gunships were on-site within minutes, the 30mm cannons of which showed their fearsome power during the Iraq War (see video below from documentary Collateral Murder.)
Below: Israel- Gaza border illustration, source: BBC
Below: Gen. Michael Flynn 2023: ""There was a decision made to have a security stand-down on the 7th of October for 7 hours on the southern zone"
Iraq 2007 video leaked by Wikileaks to US media, shown in documentary Collateral Murder, showing Apache helicopter gunship attack
But according to various sources:
- On the morning of October 7, three different surveillance camera blimps broke down, failing to transmit their wide, high resolution live images to a 24/7, closely monitored control room. (BBC)
- In the months before the attack, Hamas fighters with weapons in plain view of IDF forces were allowed to show themselves and conduct exercises on the Gaza side unmolested, without being engaged or fired upon even though they were carrying weapons. The Times of Israel reported on October 26, 2023 that an IDF soldier said:
"We saw the training, people shooting and rolling, practicing taking over a tank. The training went from once a week to twice a week, from every day to several times a day.”
Hamas was already known for its brutality. The American Jewish Committee noted in January 2025: "Hamas has a long history of extreme violence targeting Israeli civilians." Given the IDF's controversial history of bombing schools and hospitals on the mere suspicion that there was Hamas inside, it is unfathomable that armed terrorists presenting clear targets would not be attacked given its superior, massive weaponry .
- Regarding the stand-down order to cancel the patrol, Shalom Sheetrit says that he was later told informally by high-ranking officers that the reason was a sniper alert. But in a BBC report the reason changed to the threat of an anti-tank missile. However, Sheetrit had already heard the deputy battalion commander who gave the stand-down order, "in real time," say that he did not know why the order came down, from someone apparently higher up than the deputy battalion commander. An audiotape of the actual order was played at Sheetrit's testimony at the Knesset. (BBC) (Sheetrit testimony)
Israel Knew of Hamas Battle Plan
In December 2023 the New York Times ran a stunning investigation on a confirmed copy received by the IDF of a Hamas battle plan, which resembled in remarkable detail the attack carried out on October 7.
In "Israel Knew Hamas’s Attack Plan More Than a Year Ago" the New York Times wrote:
"Israeli officials obtained Hamas’s battle plan for the Oct. 7 terrorist attack more than a year before it happened, documents, emails and interviews show. But Israeli military and intelligence officials dismissed the plan as aspirational, considering it too difficult for Hamas to carry out.
The approximately 40-page document, which the Israeli authorities code-named “Jericho Wall,” outlined, point by point, exactly the kind of devastating invasion that led to the deaths of about 1,200 people."
Netanyahu Had Long Policy of Building Up Hamas
Although Hamas is treated in the mainstream international media as perhaps the world's most brutal and frightening pariah, with the word striking dread into the hearts of ordinary, decent folk, Israel has not only killed far more women and children than Hamas over the years, it has actually funded it.
In December 2023 the New York Times wrote in "‘Buying Quiet’: Inside the Israeli Plan That Propped Up Hamas":
"Just weeks before Hamas launched the deadly Oct. 7 attacks on Israel, the head of Mossad arrived in Doha, Qatar, for a meeting with Qatari officials.
For years, the Qatari government had been sending millions of dollars a month into the Gaza Strip — money that helped prop up the Hamas government there. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel not only tolerated those payments, he had encouraged them."
Worse, according to the Times, Israeli intelligence has determined that money contributed to the carnage and chaos of October 7. Hang-gliders, trucks, and weapons cost money that Gazans, one of the most desperately poor and downtrodden people in the world, don't have. The Times reports that Hamas donations often arrived in the form of Israeli escorts bearing suitcases full of cash.
"Israeli intelligence officials now believe that the money had a role in the success of the Oct. 7 attacks, if only because the donations allowed Hamas to divert some of its own budget toward military operations."
Even though Netanyahu's previous argument for funding Hamas amounted to appeasing terrorism, now that Hamas holds Israeli hostages the argument has changed to a hard-line refusal to negotiate with Hamas because this would be appeasing terrorism.
Germany Halts Arms Shipments to Israel
In related news, on August 8 Germany, previously one of Israel's strongest supporters, announced that it would halt arms shipments to to Israel. The UK Guardian reports:
"The German chancellor has indicated a significant shift in Berlin’s staunch support for Israel by stopping the export of military equipment that could be used in Gaza, as international partners condemned Israeli plans to take control of Gaza City."
Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has supported funds for Hamas in the past and hand an important role in building it to what it is, blasted Germany, saying Germany was “rewarding Hamas terrorism by embargoing arms to Israel”.
